Almost Summer!

I'm trying to get back in to a more normal posting schedule. I'm still not posting as much as I'd like but I'll get back to more regular posts eventually. I'd be happy with once or twice a week.

I do believe that we're finally on our way to summer. It's been warm and it looks like there will be no more snow *knock on wood* 

I received my Mother's Day contest winnings from Woolgirl.

It was stuffed full of wonderful yummy bits of leftover yarn, two different full skeins of sock yarn, stickers, dpns, chocolate (had to throw those in the fridge....they were all melty), sticky notepads, and the cutest handcrafted cards. I was having a bad day when this came in. I didn't sleep very well the night before so I was super tired and all worn down. I mugged Shawn as soon as he walked through the door holding the box.

I finished a pair of socks.

The pattern is Gracious (ravelry)(non ravelry) and the yarn is Miss Babs Yummy Sock in the colorway Suede Rose. I really enjoyed this pattern and the yarn has a tight twist, is soft and was really nice to work with. This is my second pattern by Terry Ross. I really like her sock patterns. They're well written and nice to knit. The Tangled Faeries pattern I used to knit my last TLE swap pal was a Terry Ross pattern. I do have plans to knit another one of her patterns in the future.

I've cast on and frogged the baby blanket twice now. I was originally going to use some solid colored Plymouth Encore but have now decided to use Peaches & Creme. Here's the colors I'm going to use now:

I'm going for a simple garter stitch striped blanket. I'm not sure if I'm going to use the ombre colorway yet. I haven't made up my mind yet. Decisions decisions! I'll get that cast on some time today.

The tomato plants are doing great now that the weather warmed up.

They did unbelievably well for the two weeks they spent in the garage but they really took off after the weather warmed up and they've had a chance to be in the sun all day. We're seeing blooms on all three plants....some are opening up and others are still closed. Hopefully this year will be another good tomato year. This year we planted them in organic soil designed for container growing. It cost us a bit more but I think it's going to help.

We bought them during Home Depots Earth Day sale which happened shortly before we got the 25+ inches of snow. Boy did that snowfall make me really glad we container plant our veggies. Home Depot had a deal where you bought one plant got one free so we picked up 3 tomato plants, 1 spring onion plant, and 2 salad mix. I'll be going back this payday to pick up some strawberry plants. I don't know if we'll see any strawberries but the girls really want to plant some so who am I to argue. For now I'll keep buying the strawberries from the grocery store.

That pretty much sums up what I've been up to. I should have my first Wizard of Oz kit from Woolgirl next week and I'm going to be casting on some new socks in the next few days. I'm going with the Hearts & Flowers socks from the book Socks from the Toe Up and I need to pick out a new yarn for my "on the go" socks. I've decided that Noro silk garden sock does not make a very good sock yarn. I'll see if I can't use it for something else but it's definitely not going to be socks! Ugh! And to think, I have a second skein sitting in my stash. Sheesh!

I'm planning to place an order through TLE for some roving. I did a little spinning the other day and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. I have a $25 credit so I might as well use it. I'll try to post about my spinning in the next few days.

Happy Crafting!

Spring Is Finally Here!

Well I think it's here anyway. The weather here has warmed up quite nicely. We had grand plans to have a picnic on Sunday but the stupid rain came in and ruined those. Hopefully next weekend will be nice and we can try for that picnic again. We're want to get out on the trails with the bikes and do a little riding around the river.

My friend Patty has opened up an etsy shop for the jewelry she's been making. She has some really pretty stuff. Check her out....I'll wait till you get back, promise!

We've been contemplating a new car and will most likely replace the one we have before the end of the year. We've been having a lot of electrical problems so it's time to get rid of it before we go broke trying to fix it. The stupid thing is shutting off at low speeds which is not life threatening but we keep thinking "what's next". I won't even tell you all how much the brake lines, rotors and brake pads cost me. Lets just say that several cashmere sweaters with enough to spare on a few pair of cashmere socks....painful? Oh you bet! No I didn't take it to the dealer because it would have cost me 3 times that. So anyways we were thinking really hard about the Subaru Forester until we realized that you have to put Premium fuel in it....ah yeah, nope don't think so. Am so not going to have that bite me in the butt if the gas prices shoot back to Mars again. The $4.20 per gallon was bad enough I don't want another 20-50 cents per gallon tacked on to that. We have it narrowed down to a Toyota Rav4, Camry or Corolla. We like the space of the SUV but we like the lower price of the car. We'll make our final decision after we take a peek at the trunk space of the Camry and Corolla. We were originally planning to get a vehicle that can tow but now it doesn't matter. We've decided that we're waiting until after Shawn gets out of the military to buy a camping trailer and we'll look for a used truck that can tow the trailer we want. For now we just want something that is reliable and you just don't get much more reliable then a Toyota.

So lets see, what have I been up to since the last post. A post which was what, 2 weeks ago. I'm to lazy intent on getting this post finished to pull up the site to see when the last post is. That's neither here nor there. You all are here to see what I've been up too.

I finished my Glynis socks (ravelry).

Man this yarn is seriously yummy! It's Zen Yarn Garden Serenity sock and I got it from Woolgirl. It's worth every penny. Last time I checked Woolgirl still had some in stock. I finished these in a record breaking 6 days and I knit them one at a time! The yarn was so delish I couldn't put them down. The pattern is from CookieA's new sock book Sock Innovations. If you love knitting socks and don't have this one yet you need to pick it up. It's worth it!

The Daisy cloth (ravelry)(non ravelry) from the Monthly Dishcloth KAL.

I think the colorway is lavender and the yarn is Peaches & Creme. This was a cute pattern and I definitely wouldn't mind knitting it again.

I finally got a picture of Kaity in her lacy cardi.

Don't ask me why she's not smiling. Normally the kid is smiling all the time. She likes the cardi....I swear she does! I'm planning on making a wool one for her for winter. I'm thinking maybe Cascade 220 superwash.

I finished the stripey Regia socks.

I kept them plain stockinette so I could show off all the stripes....well that and I didn't feel like knitting ribbing. There goes that laziness again.

Look at this kick butt birthday prezzie I received from my friend Colleen.

It's a knitters kit from Slipped Stitch Studios and some samples of fiber for spinning. Colleen, it's probably a good thing we live on opposite sides of the US. I think we'd get into some serious trouble if we lived near one another. I'm working on your gifty so you're going to have to wait just a tad longer for your box.....Muh-hahaha!

We finished the puzzle!

Kaity and I have been working on this every evening since she won it at Bingo night. It's been taken apart and put back in the box. We're getting ready to start a Tigger photomosaic puzzle that I have a feeling is going to kick our butt. This one was bought by my parents and I have a Winnie the Pooh one that I picked up a long time ago.

Well that covers it for now. Hopefully I'll be back to show off some goodies here soon. I won the Mothers Day contest on Woolgirl's blog and I'm hoping to see my first Oz kit here in the next week or so. Plus I'm working on a few other things that I haven't gotten progress photos of.

So with the wrap up of this post I'll leave you all with this picture of a photographer taking a picture of a photographer photo.

Happy Crafting!

Coffee, Bikes, and Knitting...

sounds like a pretty good combo to me. It's no secret that I love Starbucks coffee. Hubby and I are both addicted and normally get a coffee several times a week. We have a gold rewards card and try very hard not to think about the obscene amounts of money we spend on coffee. I figure it's better then the pack a day smoking habit we both had and it's way cheaper. Cigarettes are getting friggin' pricey and the prices on base aren't much cheaper then in town....I think they're almost up to $6 per pack....ouch! Boy am I glad I quit! But I get sidetracked...back to what I was talking about. I generally get either an iced caramel mocha or a caramel frapp, both of them come in plastic cups which I was more then happy to recycle. The problem comes in is that the company that use to recycle plastics around here stopped because they were taking a loss so we no longer have a place to recycle plastics which of course made me feel guilty every time I bought a iced drink because I knew I was going to be throwing the plastic away in the trash when I was done.

Shawn the Wonder Hubby brought home this beauty! It's the new Venti reusable cold cup from Starbucks. From what I understand these babies flew off the shelves quickly. Thankfully there will be no need for me to feel guilty anymore! Plus I get 10 cents off for using a reusable cup. The cup is double wall insulated so it keeps the drink cold a lot longer and the cup doesn't sweat so no more wet hands from holding a sweating cup. So I have a Venti cup, hubby has a Grande cup and all is right in the land of Luvs2knit.

I also got a bike.

The doctor wants me to exercise more and bike riding is definitely good exercise. The thing that sold me on this bike is the way the frame dips down making it a lot easier for me to get on and off the bike. We bought it from the House of Wall so the bike is getting a tune up at the local bike shop since frankly I don't trust the people who put the bikes together at Wally World. My luck is I'd get on the bike and break an arm because some moron forgot to put a bolt in where it should be.

I did receive some yummy goodies from Woolgirl the other day.

I picked up a Knit Kit, some Unique Sheep Pima Petite to make myself a tank top, and a skein of DIC Smooshy to round out the box and get free shipping. For some reason two of the skeins of cotton look different but all four skeins are the same color. Crappy weather = crappy pictures. Ah, spring in Montana! The Knit Kit is bigger then I was expecting but I love it. It's in my knitting bag now.

This is the yarn I'll be using to make my cousins baby blanket.

She's due next month so I really need to get my butt in gear and get started on this blanket. The yarn is Plymouth Encore worsted and its actually a lighter green the the picture. I picked this up from WEBS on sale for like $3.75 per skein. I'm going to be using the Angle Wings Baby Blanket pattern from the May 09 issue of Creative Knitting. I was going to start it the other day but I keep getting distracted by my Glynis socks. I can't help it....how can you put down cashmere laced sock yarn. The stuff is more addictive then crack....not that I've used crack....lol.

Speaking of my Glynis Socks (ravelry).

Here's my progress so far. I've finished on sock and have cast on the second one. It's a very easy pattern but the beginning of the round shifts so I opted to knit them one at a time instead of two at a time to make things easier on myself. I'm lazy, I can't help it!

I also finished the lacy cardi for Kaity and she loves it. The pattern is called Bounce Lace Cardigan (ravelry). I don't have a picture yet since she grabbed it as soon as it was washed and it's now sitting in the bottom of her dirty clothes basket. I'll catch a picture of her in it after laundry day. I'm sure it'll be one of the first things she'll grab when laundry is done.

I finished the test knit for Woolgirl but it's going to be awhile yet before I can show that one to you guys. I'm also working on my swap pals project which I need to spend a good afternoon or two on to get it finished up. I'm planning to send the box out next payday if everything goes well.

I'm making pretty good progress on my "on the go" socks.

They now have heels. I'll going with a plain stockinette leg for these and will put a couple inches of ribbing at the top before I bind off. I'll be done with these in the next few weeks.

I think that sums up everything that's been going on around here. Not overly exciting but at least I'm getting some knitting done. Even with all the crappy weather we've been having my tomato plants are doing great! They spent over a week in the garage thanks to the heavy amounts of snow we got. The final total on the three day storm was 25.4 inches of snow. The snow is gone and has been replaced with rain. Dear Mother Nature, could we please dry out just a tad before you hit us with more rain? All the snow and rain has the falls here in town flowing really well. Wonder what the falls look like at Ryan Dam?

Happy Crafting!